These Maps Visualize London's 2.4 Billion Bus Journeys In A Whole New Way

There
is order and beauty in the chaos of your commuteCheshire and Uberti

In 2013, Londoners took 2.4 billion bus journeys. They were
prescribed 116 million items by doctors, and found themselves
joined by more than 1,750,000 American tourists.

Meanwhile, in one small, financial corner of the capital, the
population, in every 24-hour period of the year, spiked from 222
residents to more than 127,000.

These staggering statistics are the work of geographer James
Cheshire and visual artist Oliver Uberti, who have merged to
create a new series of maps depicting London as "the most data-heavy capital
in the world."

The maps and infographics are as diverse as the information they
cover — highlighting, for example, the 2,580 mobile phones left
in a single year at Heathrow Airport, and charting the 1.1
million phone calls the emergency services took in 2013.
Approximately 32,500 of them, by the way, came from incapacitated
binge drinkers.

In "There is order and beauty in the chaos of your commute,"
Cheshire and Uberti capture London's commuting routes using data
from Oyster travel cards logged by University College London.
Tracking the likes of train journeys and taxi fares and
digitalizing their movements, they arc to form a colorful
algorithm of details.

"Almost every journey taken in London leaves a digital trace in
its wake," explain Cheshire and Uberti on their website. "It may
be hard to appreciate as you squeeze onto a Tube or bus in the
morning, but you are one of millions adding to the beauty of the
currents captured."

In "Generation rent," the graph on the left shows the
change in median monthly rent prices from January 2013 to April
2014. On the right, there's a visualization of the cost increase
for two-bedroom apartments along the Tube's Central line, with
inner stations costing far more than their suburban
neighbours.

Generation rentCheshire and Uberti

It's one of 100 new maps and
graphics in the pair's new book, "London:
The Information Capital,"
and Cheshire admits
referring to London as such is a bold claim.

On his website, he explains: "We think it is justified for two
reasons: London not only generates a huge volume of data, it
shares an unprecedented amount with its citizens to use as they
wish.

"Open data initiatives exist in other cities, not least in Europe
and North America, but what gives London an information edge is
the belief that data can not only record social change but also
instigate it."

"Lost and found," seen below, looks at all the items lost
at Heathrow Airport in 2013. In the 12 months, 1,060 wallets were
misplaced, alongside 5,090 computers, tablets, and electronics,
and 650 sets of keys. Lost and foundCheshire and Uberti

Traveling through Heathrow
Airport is Uberti, an American with a passion for London's
availability of data and information.

He says on his site: "As an American, I couldn’t believe how much
government data was publicly available and how easy it was to
access it online."

Uberti and Cheshire used Google Hangouts to discuss the project
and see it in motion; together inspired by questions about London
and finding out what makes it tick.

The UK capital is a very diverse city. In fact, three
million of its 8.2 million citizens come from overseas. Below,
"Twitter ink" highlights tweets by home country and projects
Twitter users from places such as Kuwait, Turkey, and
Italy.

Twitter
inkCheshire and
Uberti

Cheshire used data analysis in
open source software to find his statistics, while many of
Uberti's images started life as hand-drawn sketches. Numerous
Freedom of Information Requests and compiled information nestles
alongside artistic experimentation and creativity.

This chart features the
top 20 nations by spending, per visitor, in 2012. The US, by far,
had the most tourists — but it was Saudi Arabia, right down at
the bottom, whose citizens spent most. Each individual parted
with thousands.